Automotive vehicle body structures, components, and propulsion devices are examples of many articles of manufacture that experience mechanical vibrations in their structure. The vibrations may, for example, occur in a wall or housing or partition structure, or in a shaft, or other structure susceptible to vibrating or passing vibrations. Often such operational or imposed vibrations are of a frequency that, if coupled with the surrounding atmosphere in a manner that makes them audible, can produce distressing noise to a user of the vehicle or other article. Further, vibrations in structures may lead to decreased fatigue life, if the amplitude, frequency, and mode structure are not controlled. Automotive vehicles have many body structures, motors, engine components, power transmission components, brakes, and the like that are designed to serve many functions in addition to operating at an acceptable vibrational or noise level. Still, there remains a need for practices of reducing vibrations and noise output from many such vibratile vehicle parts and other articles of manufacture.
At least in the case of automotive vehicles, such practices are needed both in the design of new vehicle parts for quiet operation and in the modification of existing vehicle parts for reduced broadcasting of noise and minimizing vibrational amplitude.